Sunday’s Game 3 isn’t the biggest of Steph Curry’s career. It probably wouldn’t even crack the top 10. But when you layer in the context and sprinkle some recency bias, it sure feels like one of the toughest get-right challenges he’s faced on a basketball court.

Neither the teams or the coaches appear all that likely to drastically change up strategy. Both the Warriors and Rockets continue to deliver the same message: Play our way, just compete harder, stay sharper, impose our will stronger. If both arrive with the required force, then it’s up to the headliners to nudge whichever side over the top.

Entering Game 3, Curry is the headliner with the most pressure but also the most power. His struggles in Game 2 are a major reason this series returns to Oakland 1-1, not 2-0 Warriors. But if Curry can shift his sputtering gear from Jeff Teague-level impact into somewhere near the MVP Curry stratosphere, the Warriors will get a jolt...